Mental Characteristics
= Mental Characteristics = Unlike the Physical Characteristics, it is the Mental stats that really set your character apart from the others. A high Sg but low Wp suggests a pandering, wormy sage, able to provide the information required but susceptible to persuasion. A character with high Wp but low Ld indicates a character who is a lone wolf - able to take on the world and stop at nothing, yet has no loyalties to his comrades, or possesses any charisma to lead them. Conversely, a high Ld, low Nv character might be a vociferous fire and brimstone preacher, putting on a grand show to inspire his underlings, yet when the actual fighting starts, he has made excuses to be as far from the front lines as possible. It is straightforward to provide examples of Physical statistics, as all guardsmen tend to be trained to a similar level, so generalisations can be made about their Ballistic Skill, or proficiency with a blade. However, it is the Mental Characteristics that set your characters apart - this sniper can shoot a fly's eyelashes off at 300 paces, but has a serious amasec problem, and cannot turn down a glass when handed to him. With this in mind, examples will be made about specific individuals, rather than general archetypes. You cannot say that all guardsmen will have a certain amount of Wp, but you can suggest what kind of man will have a higher Ld than those around him, and indicate what kind of attributes would be required to 'access' certain bands. Sagacity (Sg) Sagacity is the character's logic, intelligence, problem solving and lateral thinking all rolled into one. Sagacity tests are needed when a character is trying to do anything that takes patience, brains or intricate work such as hotwiring a car, unjamming a weapon, deciphering a codex of ancient text, picking a locked chest, understanding an alien ambassador's dialect, using an unfamiliar weapon, remembering the correct order of the three hundred names of the Daemon he is trying to unbind, coaxing the machine spirit of a powered door to lurch back into life, setting/defusing explosives or performing a ritual. It is your character's sharpness of perception and the acuteness of his judgement, called into play when he is trying to think his way out of a problem rather than merely relying on hot lead and steel. As you can see, Sg represents a lot of different fields of expertise, so you should be very wary about dealing with this statistic. As a good guideline, Sg should be split into two, and the two parts combined should be (approximately) half the character's IQ. The two parts should be Experience and Schooling. Decide (out of 50 for each) where your character falls into these two categories. Upon closer examination of your character, you might discover that he has very little Schooling, but a lot of field Experience, so you give him 10 and 30 respectively, giving him a total of 40 Sg - about what you'd expect a decently educated Guardsmen with a few tours of duties under his belt. If you are planning a character who has a very focussed area of expertise (but is very good in his chosen field), it is recommended you give them a more modest Sg, but provide them with a Special Ability that gives them a boost to rolls in their chosen field. For example, you have a character who isn't particularly bright, but machines just.. speak to her. You would give her a Sg around the mid 40s, but give her the Mechanically Mindedability, representing her focus on machines, rather than being an all-round clever clogs. As a (very) rough guide, an average un-educated Imperial Citizen would expect to sport a Sg of around 30 - most of that would come under Experience rather than Schooling, but still not great. An Officer or man of similar rank could see Sagacity levels reaching 50-60, especially if he has taken time out from murdering to read the many sub-texts in the Tactica Imperialis. A Deductor or Investigator might sport a Sg exceeding 60, and some Inquisitors may have Sgs in the upper 70s. However, having a character dedicate himself that much to his learning means that me must be neglecting his other responsibilities, perhaps he has let his sword arm get old and slow and has a dropped WS, or maybe his eyes are failing and his wits aren't what they used to be, so has a reduced Initiative. A high Sagacity should come at a price to a character. Willpower (Wp) How well can your character resist the last biscuit in the packet, or the advances of a busty bar wench? Willpower is almost self explanatory, but as with most things in Inquisitor, nothing is straight forward. Willpower will be used to resist attempts by enemy agents to probe your mind for secrets, stand up to the Alpha Male in the warband who bullies your character due to his lack of physical prowess, defy the will of a daemon attempting to assert himself over you, duel with an enemy psyker in a battle of wits, withstand the horrors coating the floor and walls in the aftermath of a cult ritual or launch incandescent bolts of pure warp energy at your foe. Willpower is called into play when a character is being forced to do something that is against his nature and thus is almost totally unique to the character in question. Two Guardsmen with identical Physical characteristics might have very different willpowers, which makes them radically different characters to play with. As a guideline, 40 is the 'average' level for most characters who will be employed by the Inquisition, as the Inquisition itself has very little use for snivelling toady individuals unless they are exceptional in other areas. That said, Willpowers will rarely exceed 65 in non-psykers unless there is a very good reason for doing so. Psychic characters on the other hand, can go above and beyond this, even tickling the upper echelons of the 80s or 90s depending on their mental prowess. Similarly to Sg however, spending your time refining your mental weaponry should make your physical state weaker - always try and balance out exceptionally high stats with one or two surprisingly low stats. Nerve and Willpower tend to go hand in hand for resisting psychological conditions, and Wp tests are often wrongly used in place of Nv tests and vice versa. It is widely accepted that Willpower is the 'human' element of the pair, and Nerve is the 'animal' half. Nerve will be used when the character can no longer rationalise a situation - death and explosions blossom around him and he has no choice but to keep his head down, suck his thumb and succumb to his survival instincts. Willpower comes into play when the character tries to retain his cool, evaluate situations, predict likely outcomes and essentially pull himself together before he completely loses his wits. When Pinned, if your GM is feeling nice, you can often ask him if you can attempt a Wp test, and apply any bonuses/penalties to an upcoming Nv test to resist pinning or Fear. After all, if the character can spend a few moments to rationalise his opponent (Hah! That shotgun's effective range is nowhere near where I am now) he might find himself plucking up the courage to break cover or return fire. That said, if the character fails this test,still apply the negative modifier to your Nv check. The door swings both ways after all, and upon closer inspection of the chrono-gladiator sprinting towards him, he has deduced how easily his body would get snipped in twain by a single claw, and has decided to stay put. Nerve (Nv) Nerve is the statistic to represent the guts of your character - the measure of his cahones, the cut of his jib, the ability to remain cool under pressure, the size of his balls and his war face. Out of the 4 mental statistics, Nerve comes into play the most, usually through the medium of Pinning Checks. Nerve will also be used in Fear and Terror checks, as well as a multitude of psychic powers that cause characters to want to break ranks and flee, and there are some GMs that impose Nv checks on people who watch their buddies being killed around them. Regardless of how it comes about, characters will be required to make Nerve checks frequently. With that in mind, it is not necessarily wise to crank up the Nv on your 'badass' characters to keep them in the fight longer. There are obviously causes for that, when characters quite simply have more balls than brains, but remember that intelligent characters are alive because they know how best to survive in any given situation, and more often than not that involves hitting the deck and keeping your head down when the bullets start flying. A Pinned character is an alive character, after all. Unlike the other mental statistics however, you can't really 'train' Nerve. Nerve and Willpower tend to go hand in hand for resisting psychological conditions, and Wp tests are often wrongly used in place of Nv tests and vice versa. It is widely accepted that Willpower is the 'human' element of the pair, and Nerve is the 'animal' half. Willpower can be learned, trained, rationalised, whereas Nerve is more instinctive, primal and innate - it's what your character reverts to when all the human elements of his situation are broken down and he is left to his basic urges to survive. When Pinned, if your GM is feeling nice, you can often ask him if you can attempt a Wp test, and apply any bonuses/penalties to an upcoming Nv test to resist pinning or Fear. After all, if the character can spend a few moments to rationalise his opponent (Hah! That shotgun's effective range is nowhere near where I am now) he might find himself plucking up the courage to break cover or return fire. That said, if the character fails this test,still apply the negative modifier to your Nv check. The door swings both ways after all, and upon closer inspection of the chrono-gladiator sprinting towards him, he has deduced how easily his body would get snipped in twain by a single claw, and has decided to stay put. Leadership (Ld) Leadership is the statistic with the most hand-wavery, as it is called upon to represent a whole variety of (sometimes conflicting) characteristics. Most commonly, it is used to show the command your character has over others, but it is also used to deduce the loyalty of a character, or used to intimidate, charm, interrogate, impress, persuade, bribe or any other interaction requiring charisma. As such, it is difficult to create a guideline for how best to use Leadership on your characters. Characters with low Ld are likely to be toadying, fawning yes-man, easily manipulated and bent to others' wills. This is often found on minions, cultists, conscripts and the like - low ranking individuals with very little room for free thought or independent actions, those that need the support, guidance or orders of others to operate effectively. Characters with a high Ld tend to be Warband leaders, war heroes, officers, handsome rakes, Rogue Traders, seductresses, cult leaders, charismatic thieves and the like - characters who spend a lot of time in the company of others and influencing or manipulating them to fulfil their personal desires. This does not automatically mean an Inquisitor in a warband needs to have the highest Ld statistic in the group - Inquisitors who are on the front line in the battle for the Emperor's soul might have a lower (but still considerable, they are the most powerful individuals in the Imperium after all!) Leadership than those who are weaker, but lead from the back. It is unlikely an Inquisitor who addresses problems by wading into combat will have a high Leadership attribute - manipulative, intelligent and wiser Inquisitors who lead from the back, directing combat as he sees fit will have a much higher Leadership. Remember Leadership also represents loyalty, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for a First Mate to have a higher Ld than his Captain. This unfortunately has the split effect of representing the character as an uncharismatic oaf with no charm or skill at influencing others, as all these interactions are lumped under one characteristic. This doesn't come up in game very often, as most characters would rather parley with bolt rounds, so don't spend too much time agonising over how best to average out these skills with a single statistic. If you want to represent a character who is particularly able in a certain field, perhaps he is irresistible to women, possesses a silver tongue, or could command a man he has never met before to lay down his life for him in a heartbeat, don't be afraid to use or invent a Special Ability that lets him do just that.